Neighbors: Blizzards of the past bring vivid memories

"When someone complains of too much snow, I'm reminded of the blizzard of March 1967."

So writes Alta Zepper, who lives in Moorhead and remembers 1967.

As the picture she sent in shows, "We had a very long driveway, " she writes, "and there were no snow blowers; we only had shovels!

"It was hard to see at intersections, so everyone drove slow, not like today."

Overnight in school

Alvin Swanson, Moorhead, sends in his memories of another winter storm that hit the area in February 1946. He was a student at the Oak Mound School, 2 miles west of Kragnes, Minn.

"It started snowing big flakes in the afternoon," Alvin writes. "By the time school was out, it had become a bad storm. I and a few other students were forced to remain in the school overnight.

"The next day, my dad came with horses and a sled to take me home.

"The roads were blocked, causing us to miss a lot of school after that storm."

Oak Mound School was formed when three area schools consolidated in 1913, but there had been one-room schools in the area since 1895, Alvin writes.

The two-story school building was used until 1957, when children in the area started attending Moorhead schools.

For many years, horse-drawn school buses were used to bring kids to Oak Mound.

The building also was a center for many area events, Alvin writes.

The 1941 blizzard

Then there was the terrible blizzard of 1941, which became known as the "Tax Day" storm because it occurred on March 15, which at that time was the final filing date for income taxes.

That storm killed more than 70 people in the region.

"I was only 8 years old, but I remember that 'Tax Day' storm," Dr. David Fihn, Detroit Lakes, Minn., writes, "because it was so strong and several from Halstad (Minn.) died." Dave lived in Halstad at the time.

Philip Grage, Gardner, N.D., writes that a "very good book" about that 1941 storm is "Looking for Candles in the Window," by Douglas Ramsey and Larry Skroch. "It is very well written and tells a lot about the people who lost their lives," he says.

"I was not born until the following October, but I remember my folks talking about it," Phil writes.

For sure, anyone who experienced that '41 blizzard will never forget it.

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